Follow the author of this article

Follow the topics within this article

Breast cancer survivors who undergo common forms of treatment are twice as likely to develop heart disease, new research shows.

Experts said that such women should undergo screening in subsequent years to check their heart health, in a bid to protect them from heart disease – one of Britain’s major killers.

The study of almost 15,000 subjects found that women who underwent radiotherapy saw a sharp increase in rates of cardiac disease, while some forms of chemotherapy were linked to a four-fold rise in heart failure.

The research by the Netherlands Cancer Institute tracked 14,645 breast cancer sufferers between 1970 and 2009, and examined those at risk of heart disease.

The study found that 11 per cent of those who had undergone radiotherapy of the lymph nodes behind the sternum went on to develop the disease, over two decades – compared with just six per cent of those who underwent different forms of cancer treatment.

Rates of heart attacks were 50 per cent higher in the radiotherapy group, compared with the general population.

And the research found that women given anthracycline-based chemotherapy had rates of heart failure four times those of patients who had other types of treatment.

When combined with radiotherapy of the lymph nodes behind the sternum, there was a nine-fold increased risk of heart disease, the study, published in the British Journal of Cancer found.

The study tracked women given common forms of breast cancer treatment over four decades.

While chemotherapy and radiotherapy can have some difficult side-effects, they are incredibly effective options for so many patientsMelanie Sturtevant, Breast Cancer Now

Researchers said that modern radiation techniques would be expected to have a lower impact, because they exposed the heart to lower doses.

And experts said women diagnosed with the disease today would normally be given an extra drug called a taxane in order to reduce risks to the heart.

Melanie Sturtevant, Policy Manager at Breast Cancer Now, said: “This vital study highlights the importance of all patients being informed about how the benefits of their treatment weigh up with the risks – but we’d urge them not to be unduly concerned by these findings. While chemotherapy and radiotherapy can have some difficult side-effects, they are incredibly effective options for so many patients and remain the cornerstones of breast cancer treatment.

Any patient with concerns about the risks of breast cancer treatment should discuss them with their doctor, she said.

“Thanks to research progress, newer radiotherapy techniques are now reducing the impacts on the heart for breast cancer patients. Recent clinical guidelines also recommend adding a taxane to anthracycline chemotherapy to help reduce cardiac toxicity, as well as avoiding anthracyclines for patients with a history of cardiac disease and using them with caution in older patients.”

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women, with around 50,000 diagnoses in England each year, and one in eight women developing the disease during their lifetime.

Heart disease is Britain’s second biggest killer, after dementia.

In recent years a number of studies have suggested that drugs such as statins which protect against heart disease could also boost survival rates for common cancers, including breast cancer.